The best article on Atheism I have read

K

KennyJC

Registered Senior Member
It gives a pure definition of atheism and describes it's honesty. It also looks at the nature of fundamentalist and 'religious moderation' beliefs, the harm it does to politics, the conflict it creates around the world and the misguided notion by theists that say a religion is needed for a society to be healthy, despite the evidence saying the complete opposite.

http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/200512_an_atheist_manifesto
 
KennyJC said:
It gives a pure definition of atheism and describes it's honesty. It also looks at the nature of fundamentalist and 'religious moderation' beliefs, the harm it does to politics, the conflict it creates around the world and the misguided notion by theists that say a religion is needed for a society to be healthy, despite the evidence saying the complete opposite.

http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/200512_an_atheist_manifesto
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It's overall pretty good. The author does seem to have a sense of morality, 'good', and 'evil' which appear to be emotionally based and I think it leads him to into some futile subjective arguments. I think a little time and maturity will weed this aspect out of his position.
 
Started to read it but could only take about 6 parragraphs. Very simplistic. God is mean therefore God does not exist and bad things happen so God does not exist. Both arguments have no basis. It is like saying hitler never existed because it is reported he did bad things, why do they bother using such arguments? weather God is nice or mean has no bearing on His existance or otherwise.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
weather God is nice or mean has no bearing on His existance or otherwise.
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Then you are forgeting the god is omnibonevelent argument. Bad things happen so god can't be omnibonevelent therefore god is a contradiction to being all good. :rolleyes:

Godless
 
I would suggest that the problem is that people actually think that God takes direct action in our lives.....

where i would propose that God, gives us life.. and the will to live it.. but after that, doesnt get much involved.. and chooses to watch the show as it were.

thus.. its up to us.. to choose to be Godly, and good.
otherwise.. if God gave us proff... then faith would have little meaning, since fear would make us all believers.

-MT
 
Mosheh Thezion said:
fear would make us all believers.
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and thats is exactly what religion is faith out of fear, "fear of dying and there being nothing, fear of gods wrath for not being righteous, etc...
your talking out of your hat man, make sense.

the atheist is the reasonable man, he has no fear of stupid inane imaginings, it would be infantile to do so.

the only reason adstar did'nt read on, was fear.
 
are you fearless???

Only fools are fearless... All brave men, know fear.. but what makes them brave is their ability to overcome it.

Atheists are reasonable.. yes.. and base their views on Logic and reason generally..
thus they are welcome in my Church, but they must be open to discuss theory...
and theory.. can suggest a God of somekind.

and any refusal to contemplate a God... is in itself.. closeminded, and fearful.

since in truth... we cannot be sure either way.

-MT
 
I have come to this forum and others for a good few years, I don't think this web site could have given me a new argument for the non-existence of God that i have not already heard. ;) So it wasn't a matter of fear it was a matter of mind numbing boredom at the same old stuff.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
As for the term Omnibenevolent. God does not love everyone and i have not put forward that He does. Time and time again in scripture it is revealed that God hates. Although God hates He also is forgiving for those who are repentant and trust in Him. That is where God's benevolence comes in through the Messiah Jesus. While that benevolence is open to those that God hates it is only open to those who recognize their state of being and accept the Messiah Jesus as their savior.

So no God is not Omnibenevolent to all mankind but all mankind have the ability to access God's benevolence.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
Adstar said:
Started to read it but could only take about 6 parragraphs. Very simplistic. God is mean therefore God does not exist and bad things happen so God does not exist. Both arguments have no basis. It is like saying hitler never existed because it is reported he did bad things, why do they bother using such arguments? weather God is nice or mean has no bearing on His existance or otherwise.
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I think he was being hypothetical there. People mosly pray to avoid bad things happening, yet when bad things happen it strengthens their faith bizzarely. That part of the article you read was about the nature of belief.

I have come to this forum and others for a good few years, I don't think this web site could have given me a new argument for the non-existence of God that i have not already heard. So it wasn't a matter of fear it was a matter of mind numbing boredom at the same old stuff.
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How do you know since you only read 6 paragraphs?

As for the term Omnibenevolent. God does not love everyone and i have not put forward that He does. Time and time again in scripture it is revealed that God hates. Although God hates He also is forgiving for those who are repentant and trust in Him. That is where God's benevolence comes in through the Messiah Jesus. While that benevolence is open to those that God hates it is only open to those who recognize their state of being and accept the Messiah Jesus as their savior.

So no God is not Omnibenevolent to all mankind but all mankind have the ability to access God's benevolence.
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Congratulations for following the scriptures to their exact text. This means you are allowed to keep slaves. Martyrs can find the same justification by following ancient text literally. If you read further you would see that the author gave at least some respect to fundies who actually follow their rules as is written by 'God', or as you yourself would say, "proper christians". It is the moderates he is most harsh on.
 
anytime said:
What's wrong with the presence of pathos and ethos in one's arguments?
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If they express the argument then nothing. If they are presented as the proof of an objective argument then there is a problem.
 
Thanks for the clarification - I didn't actually bother reading the argument itself, but it was something I was hung up on.
 
Mosheh Thezion said:
...theory.. can suggest a God of somekind.
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I've never seen a theory even imply the existence of 'God'. I would be interested to hear more about it... how is 'God' being defined and what theory suggests its existence?

Mosheh Thezion said:
...any refusal to contemplate a God... is in itself.. closeminded, and fearful.
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Should a 'God' be contemplated any more than the average fantasy (ex. 'tooth fairy', 'easter bunny', and 'St. Nick')? If so, what is the reason for doing so?
 
I think it's obvious why a God is contemplated more than the average fantasy. Because your said examples are easily observed as not being true (it wasn't Santa that had been giving you presents on the night of Eve), where as it's difficult to disprove the validity of records of miracles millenias past.
 
I would think that 'God' would be the easiest thing in reality to observe; however, what I was seeking was a reason why 'God' should be contemplated more than the average fantasy.

Remember, we're not talking about a life form that existed in the past, performed some 'miracles', and died. We're talking about a life form that is supposed to exist at this very moment and whom should be self evident.
 
Mosheh,

and any refusal to contemplate a God... is in itself.. closeminded,
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Take care on this. It is because atheists have contemplated the concept of gods that has led them to their disbelief in the idea. Conversely the theist has totally closed his/her mind to any alternatives other than a god it.

The mark of the wise man is the ability to consider many things without having to accept them as true.

Is your mind open to any other solutions and explanations other than a god did it?
 
Mosheh,

and theory.. can suggest a God of somekind.
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But not in a scientific sense since you require substantial evdidence to qualify as theory. You mean the laymans idea of theory which includes fantasy and wild speculations, and those are of doubtful value.
 
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